Department of Drama

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Browsing Department of Drama by Subject "Aalst -- Criticism and interpretation"

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    An investigation into the motives of filicidal mothers in selected plays
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Holm, Nicole; Pretorius, Mareli Hattingh; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Drama.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Maternal filicide is a rare crime perpetrated for a number of reasons. It is a complex multifactorial phenomenon with psychiatric, psychological and environmental factors combining to create fertile ground for this crime. This study investigates the extent to which dramatic texts adhere to research on maternal filicide. This would determine the degree to which an actor charged with playing a filicidal mother would be able to create a psychologically coherent and believable character. Four plays were selected for this research study which have maternal filicide as motif, namely: Aalst (McLean, 2007), My naam/my name is Ellen Pakkies (Meiring, 2011), And all the children cried (Jones & Campbell, 2002) and By the Bog of Cats (Carr, 1999). A discussion on acting approaches and text analysis was done to indicate how an actor would analyse a dramatic text so as to create a character for performance adhering to psychological realism. It was determined that, for the purposes of this thesis, most information pertaining to character will be found in the background story, given circumstances and character components of formalist text analysis. The three most dominant perspectives on maternal filicide were briefly discussed in an attempt to understand what type of mother would kill her child. Literature from the psychiatric perspective documented unipolar depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia as three conditions often associated with filicidal mothers. From the psychological literature, it emerged that certain personality disorders are often diagnosed in mothers who have killed their children. The psychosocial perspective argues that a mother becomes filicidal because of environmental factors which impact negatively on her psychologically and thus impair her functioning. Child development theories, the neurological and the feminist perspective were also considered. The factors associated with maternal filicide were then delineated as cognitive, affective and behavioural manifestations so as to make them recognisable when encountered in the backstory, given circumstances and character components of a text. It was concluded that all four plays were factually accurate in creating a psychosocial environment in which maternal filicide is possible. It was, however, found that only three of the four texts adhered to research on maternal filicide in that the filicidal characters exhibited behaviour, cognitions and affect in accordance with mental illnesses associated with this crime.